Angels and Demons
by OftenShameless
Summary: Angels and demons can't pass over onto our plane, so instead we get what I call half-breeds. The influence peddlers. They can only whisper in your ears, but a single word can give you courage... or turn your favorite pleasure into your worst nightmare. (SasuNaru rated M because reasons)
1. Chapter 1

He hadn't been home in over a year that I knew for sure. I don't think he would choose to go back there, but spending too much time away could become exhausting. I watched him meet with numerous others, them asking him why he hadn't been home and what could possibly be so interesting that kept him away. Each time, he lied; telling them he was looking for something to do, or just having a vacation from the family. The truth, however, was strange to even an exorcist. It seemed to me he was simply watching humans, never interfering.

My job is to cruise Earth and keep the balance; angels help people who are meant to live, and demons are meant to drag down the ones who are meant to die. I kill those who break the rules and disturb the balance; any creature who kills who they aren't meant to and any who protect those they shouldn't. Angels and demons can't pass over onto our plane, so instead we get what I call half-breeds. The influence peddlers. They can only whisper in your ears, but a single word can give you courage or turn your favorite pleasure into your worst nightmare.

But this one… this demon… it would easily be mistaken as human by even me if I couldn't see its true form. Even then, the true form wasn't the worst to look at; it was easily the most gentle appearance of any demon I had ever seen, coming even above the few angels I had actually seen. It may have been seen as unhealthy that I followed a demon for weeks on end, but I still did my job, I still found others to exorcise. But I couldn't help the curiosity I felt for a demon that did nothing but walk on earth, never changing anything.

Not until today, that is, three months into my investigation that finally something changed. It was nearly midnight, and I followed the demon, surprisingly, to a liquor store. My attention was caught immediately as I watched him circling a large Caucasian man, seemingly piling bottles into his arms. My first thought was that he was leading this man to do this, but suddenly I could hear it; a quiet whisper, so quiet I couldn't make out the words. But the man froze for a good ten seconds before returning the bottles one by one in their proper places before leaving the store completely.

You can imagine my surprise when a demon prevents someone from dying. I knew this was a breach of the balance, so I promised myself I would only watch the demon a little while longer, just to see if he would return to his original behaviors. I watched him leave the store, a small smile on his face, and I could tell things were going to continue in this direction. I followed him along on the side walk, listening to his whispers to the people who passed, getting braver with each one.

He froze suddenly, not fifteen minutes into our little trek, and took off down an alleyway. I was immediately possessed to follow him, running through twists and turns before stopping behind a corner as I saw the scene ahead. A small, dark girl was being held down by a hooded figure, clearly struggling. I was tempted to run in, but the demon I was following stretched his arm out over them, arm shaking in what I figured was anger, and brought it down on the back of the man's head, killing him in one blow. The girl broke down into a fitof sobs, and the demon helped her to her feet before being pulled into a tight embrace and an endless chorus of 'thank you's.

I knew this was the furthest I could allow the demon to take it, although I silently commended him for stopping the crime, and allowed him to walk the girl home out of my own concern for her. As they reached her home, the family within as well thanked him for saving her, crying tears of joy as they heard her tale of the handsome blonde man who had saved her from the man who apparently had plans to kill her.

Surprise again for me as the demon refused money, or anything the family could offer, with a bright smile on his face and wishing the family happiness. I watched him leave, a new bounce in his step and his hair glowing even in the night, making me glad I could only see the true form of an angel or demon if I was legitimately looking for it; he was the sight to behold, whether or not it was his body or not.

I picked up the pace, reaching to my belt for my holy water and preparing myself. It was easy to corner him; he wasn't exactly looking out for anyone, he was a demon after all. So when I came up behind him, splashing holy water to his face, and shoving him down a dead end alleyway. The demon looked up to me, burning flesh healing on his face and fear in his bright blue eyes. I stood as menacingly as possible at the end of the alleyway, preparing my holy water once more along with the bible I kept with me.

"I assume you know why this is happening?"

The demon kept himself low on the ground, basically kneeling before me, "Please, I know I shouldn't have helped those people, but I can't help it. I never got the chance to help people when I was alive... I just figured I could do it now..."

I felt myself falter, and I regretted letting myself ever see the vessel this demon chose, "Explain..."

The demon looked surprised, but I could see tension leave his face, "My family, when I was alive, were not the best people, and in fact caused a lot of crime in their city. I was too young to remember any of them, but I suppose they were bad enough for God to make a baby go to hell, right?" He chuckled a bit, but I could see sadness in his face, even in the dark.

Regret turned into the unwavering thought that I was getting soft; a sad, lonely demon should not have this effect on me. "If you stay out of fate's business, I won't exorcise you," The words left my mouth before I thought better of it, but the broad smile that broke out on his face shoved the warning signs in my head to the side.

The demon rose to his feet, stepping forward with fear, but also a shaky courage. "Thank you... I'm Naruto by the way..." He shifted his weight from foot to foot, "So... um... what should I call you?"

Every rule, every one of my values as a exorcist were shouting in my head to not get close to a demon, not allow a demon to break the rules and get away from it. But he seemed too human, and a chord was struck deep within me as I could see how lonely this demon was.

"Sasuke..."

The small smile turned into a grin that glowed even in the darkness, bringing out shining blue eyes and golden blonde hair once more.

"It's great to meet you, Sasuke,"


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: Thanks for the feedback! I can tell you that things will be explained in much more detail later, and the action will really pick up as well. I hope this chapter is a bit longer to your liking (900 words to be exact). Kind of just the starting two chapters with just the surface of the plot. Enjoy!

I hadn't gone over a day without seeing the demon, well, Naruto, again. I hadn't gone out of my way to search for him, rather he seemed to be following me. In between jobs, I would see him leaning against buildings or sitting in parks, and he would wave to me as though it was the most natural thing for a demon to be friendly with an exorcist. He started with just waving, but he began walking with me, in regular, comfortable silence until he got the courage to talk. He could clearly tell I wasn't much of a talker, it kind of came along with the 'ability to see beyond' (all the stories I had were about my many painful jobs), but it didn't seem to bother him as he would watch for small signs of me listening, such as nodding, to his long, usually pointless stories.

A part of me resented him, the part that believed demons belonged in hell and angels belonged in heaven and nowhere else. The majority of me, however, enjoyed his company. I would never mention this to Naruto; his ego seemed already too big, and I doubted he would ever stop mentioning the fact that an exorcist enjoyed the company of a demon. He already made jokes about our awkward friendship, as he put it, and I wasn't about to give him any more ideas.

Eventually, it came to the point where he believed we didn't have any more boundaries, but I was still waiting for him to screw up. It wasn't necessarily bias because he was a demon, it was more because I didn't believe an angel, demon, or even a human would willingly spend time around me without an ulterior motive. He would come around regardless of me ignoring him, and he even began showing up at my rundown apartment, helping me fold my tiny loads of laundry in the basement of the apartment complex and commenting on each shirt I owned more than one of.

"Sasuke, see, you have ten of these same shirts in the same color!"

I shrugged, "You wear the same outfit every day,"

I waited for his reply, but as I was met with silence, I looked down at his frowning face. He looked up to me, forcing a smile and a shrug, "I don't own anything else... demons don't really get much, you know? And it's not like I could work somewhere."

I looked away from him, back to my basket, and then back to him again. I grabbed one of the ten shirts and plopped it onto his head before grabbing my basket and heading up the stairs. I heard him scramble to his feet and follow me.

"Sasuke, I can't take this!" He called from behind me.

I rolled my eyes, "Look, you already pointed out that I have ten, so I figured I could spare one. That one has a bleach stain anyway."

The rest of the way back to my room was silent, but I could practically feel him radiating happiness. When we reached my door, I was tempted to slam it in his face, but I knew he would just find another way in. Any act of anger, or attempts to push him away, only succeeded in making him follow me more.

"You know, it's pretty stupid of a demon to follow an exorcist around like a lost puppy," I said, placing the basket on top of the kitchen counter, just to get it out of my arms, and watched him plop down on my sad excuse for a couch.

"It's pretty stupid for an exorcist to let them," He laughed, "Besides, I've never had a real friend, and you're better than nothing, even if you could kill me."

I shrugged, but a part of me agreed with him. It was relieving to come back from a job and take my mind off my life. I didn't do anything outside of work; I did a job, came home, and thought about more jobs. Occasionally I went out of my usual routine to stock up on more holy water or other items necessary for work, but it was still centered around my daily activities. It would be difficult to find someone to be friends with that wasn't a part of the life. I may have been able to lie to someone about what I did for a living, but it would be impossible for them to stay in my shit hole of an apartment, let alone not find all my weapons lying around. Questions would be asked, ones I was not interested in answering. Besides, humans brought too much drama, and I had enough already.

"Sasuke," Naruto called, breaking me out of my thoughts, "How did you become an exorcist?"

I took a seat at the other end of the sofa, glancing at him staring at me eagerly, and sighed.

"I could always see all the shit as a kid, and it led me to a man, a priest to be exact, who was a retired exorcist. He knew right away, and basically taught me everything I know before he was killed."

"He was killed?"

"I meant before he died. Whatever, it doesn't matter."

"But you said-

"Drop it, Naruto,"

There was awkward silence after that, and I cursed the part of me that felt bad for the pout on his face. Just my luck that my only friend was someone I needed to kill.

"That was a pretty dull explanation..." He mumbled, looking nervous and eager at the same time.

I felt a smile grow on my face, "Yeah? Wait until I tell you about my first job,"

He resituated himself, sitting criss-cross and facing me, and I shifted for better eye contact.

"The priest, Bobby was his name, told me I was getting quite good at exorcising his practice dummies, which I thought was a dumbass thing to do, it really didn't show me if what I was doing was working, and gave me my first job. It was simple; it was a low-level demon, very weak, and it was possessing a little girl, about the age of twelve."

"Bobby is a weird name for a priest," Naruto laughed, and I shrugged.

"Anyway, I wasn't any older than this girl, just barely thirteen, but cockier than ever. I thought it would be beyond easy, but when I arrived, I completely blanked. I tried to expel the demon, but I was honestly too scared, and ended up being thrown out a window." I let out a small laugh, "Bobby wasn't too impressed, and he was actually forced to come take care of it with me because I refused to try again alone."

"Really, a window? I wonder if I know them. My brothers in hell, they talk about this stuff all the time, but I'm not really into hurting humans."

I raised an eyebrow, "Your brothers?"

His blue eyes widened in short surprise, "Uh well, we were all created by the same person right? We call each other our brothers and sisters..."

I hadn't thought about that. I suppose it was just as true as the 'children of god' thing. "I suppose you're right," I finally decided, "Though I sure as hell wouldn't want that many demons in my family."

Naruto laughed surprisingly hard at that, especially considering it wasn't a joke, "I don't think you'd want a demon as a family member at all, or even an angel. You don't like anyone, do you?"

"People are only capable of disappointment. Humans aren't at all what you think they are." I said, refusing to acknowledge the fact that he hadn't mentioned humans at all.

Naruto frowned at me, "I think you're wrong. If humans are only capable of disappointment, there wouldn't be any of these great things on Earth, there wouldn't be happiness,"

I chuckled, "Have you ever seen the movie 'The Pursuit of Happiness'?"

"The what?"

"Don't tell me you've never watched a movie..." The sheepish look on his face confirmed my suspicions and I groaned, "You're lucky a friend forcefully gave me a DVD player and I just so happen to own that movie,"

"A friend?"

I shrugged, "She's my supplier for stuff like holy water. Kind of a friend, more like an annoying, slightly helpful girl."

"You shrug a lot."

"You talk a lot." I shrugged, this time completely on purpose, and stood to set up the movie. It took me a moment to find the movie, and a quick glance back at Naruto showed me he was indeed watching me, a strange look on his face.

I turned the lamp off on the way back to the sofa, one of the only lights in the apartment, and we were graced with only the light of my small TV. I felt bad for having his first movie be on such a tiny TV, but I doubted he had any idea of the others out there.

As I watched Will Smith's son prance around the screen for the thousandth time in my life, I felt my attention drawn away from the movie and to Naruto sitting next to me. He was still, watching with rapt attention. The images on the screen danced in his eyes, and just from little movements I could tell what he was feeling. He would lean forward slightly, lips parting, when something surprising happened, furrow his brows when something bad happened, and at a simple scene, one I knew well where Will Smith and his son spent the night in the bathroom at a train station, a single tear rolled down his cheek. Before I could stop myself, I had reached out to stop the tear, my finger brushing against his cheekbone.

We both froze, and as his eyes met mine, I quickly lowered my hand and looked back to the screen. I could feel his eyes still on me.

"I didn't know demons could cry." I whispered in an attempt to break the silence.

"Neither did I."

I couldn't understand the feelings rushing through me. I couldn't understand how he could be crying, how he could go against everything I had ever been taught, go against everything I had ever experienced. I had let this go on too long; I went against my teachings and against my own better judgment. For what? A demon?

I threw my head into my hands, the internal battle with right and wrong becoming too much.

"Sasuke..." Naruto whispered, grasping my shoulder in his hand.

I abruptly stood, shaking his hand from my shoulder. I could feel my legs shaking, but I quickly made my way to the door, hearing Naruto jump up to follow.

"Sasuke, wait!"

"Don't follow me!" I shouted back, leaving the door wide open. I took the stairs two at a time, no patience for waiting for the elevator, and fumbled in my pockets for my keys. My car was, as usual, parked on the side of the road. I flung the driver's side door open, ignoring honks from cars going around me, and slammed it shut and jammed the key into the ignition. I wasn't one for cursing too much, but I couldn't help a long string of profanities coming from my mouth as I slammed my forehead against the steering wheel.

After a minute of sitting there, gripping the wheel so tight my knuckles were white, I finally sat up. The car was yelling at me to put on my seat belt and I complied, pulling out onto the street and trying to think of anything but the bright eyed demon sitting in my apartment.

Author's Note (again): Hope you liked. Be ready for a bit of a deeper look on Sasuke's ideas next week.


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